Million pound homes sales on the rise in Sheffield

A taste for the high life is on the up as sales of million pound homes in England and Wales rose to new heights last year.

Property sales in excess of £1 million have more than doubled in 104 local authority areas of England and Wales over the past decade, with the biggest increase seen in the East of England, where sales have doubled.

In Sheffield a total of 49 homes over £1 million have been sold since 2007, with the most expensive property selling for a staggering £5,000,000.

A mere seven million pound properties were sold in Sheffield in 2007, rising to a total of 10 in 2017, showing sales have increased by 43 per cent in the area.

Luxurious living in high demand

In the UK as a whole, a total of 16,119 sales of homes for £1 million or more were completed last year, a steady rise of five per cent from 2016.

Investment in areas with leading universities has contributed to the rising house prices in some areas, leading some locations to experience a huge boost in million pound sales.

Cambridge saw the biggest rise, with a 441 per cent increase, along with Warwick (up 317 per cent), Oxford (up 270 per cent), Bristol (up 260 per cent) and York (up 150 per cent).

The rises in £1 million plus sales over the past decade come despite a drop in the market in the aftermath of the financial crisis, and while most of these sales were in London, millionaire's rows are becoming much more common place across the country.

How was the data calculated?

The findings are based on analysis from the BBC data team of Land Registry figures for England and Wales.

All residential transactions sold at full market value in England and Wales from the Land Registry price paid dataset were assessed for the period from January 2007 to December 2017.

All transactions at £1 million and above were then mapped to local authorities using the latest Ordinance Survey's Codepoint Open mapping file from February 2018, which contains data for each postcode unit in England and Wales.